Belief and perception
Proposed to be offered next in 1996
Millicent Vladiv-Glover
8 points * 3 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton
The subject will examine the concept of `faith' in the context of the semiotic model of meaning proposed by B A Uspensky, with special reference to the Russian Orthodox thinker, Fr Pavel Florenskey. The problem of representation of reality in literature, art and culture will then be elucidated through this semiotic model. The focus will be on the link between traditional cultural (artistic) concepts, such as the image of Christ, the Mother/Child icons on the one hand, and postmodern metatheoretical concepts, such as `sacrifice' and `violence' on the other.
Assessment
Written (3500 words): 50% * Class paper (1500 words): 20% * Test (1.5 hours): 30%
Prescribed texts
Blanchot M Thomas the Obscure Station Hill, 1988
Dostoevsky F The devils Penguin
Elchaninov A The diary of a Russian priest St Vladimir's Seminary, 1982
Eliot T S Four quartets Penguin
Kafka F The trial Penguin
Kis D The encyclopedia of the dead Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1989
Merezhkovsky D Jesus manifest vol I, Jonathan Cape
Berkeley, G Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous Prometheus Books, 1988
Florensky, P Ikonostasis In: U vodorazdelov mysli: I Stat'i ob iskusstve YMCA, 1985
Nietzsche, F Thus spake Zarathustra Penguin
Uspensky B The semiotics of the Russian icon Peter de Ridder, 1976
Wittgenstein L On certainty Harper Collins